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Yesterday Flavormag interviewed Matthew Lewis and his The Rise co-stars Luke Treadaway to promote the film. I saved this post for today because we had so many stories go up yesterday. It seems to be Matt week, let’s hope it continues.

Empire Online has a podcast and the latest episode includes an interview with Matthew and his The Rise co-star Luke Treadaway. They even posted a photo of the duo that may be seen in the gallery. Listen to the episode below, if anyone can create a transcript sooner than I can, please feel free to send it in. Matthew’s interview starts at 23:15 – 37:45.

They talk about The Rise, his parents ‘shrine,’ Fantastic Beasts and much more

Looks like it is interview week for Matthew Lewis. His newest film The Rise is out in theatres in the UK beginning today and Digital Spy has posted a new interview with the actor where he talks about the upcoming film series Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them he says,

“It’s a vivid universe that she [Rowling] created. There’s certainly more to explore now. When I was a kid reading the books there was so much more that I wanted to know outside of the linear story. I wanted to know about stuff that happened around the world and we’re going to find that out through this picture that she’s making. Anything that will show off that world a little more is great.”

He also shows his support of Rowling’s involvement: “If that wasn’t the case there’d be alarm bells ringing with a lot of people, but the fact that she’s in total control of it means that I think it’s going to be good,” he said.

“Rowan attracted me to it, meeting him and hearing what he wanted from it,” the former Harry Potter star said. “He didn’t want it to fall into that group of being the same old South London hoodie or football hooligan story, he didn’t want that. We don’t have any guns in it, we tried to keep it as much to his experience of growing up in Barnsley as possible.”

Treadaway shared a flat with co-stars Iwan Rheon (Game of Thrones) and Gerard Kearns (Shameless) close to Lewis’s home in Leeds. The quartet would regularly meet up to discuss the script and forge a bond that would translate to the big screen.

“We wanted to have that chemistry off screen as much as possible,” Lewis said.

In a new interview with the Yorkshire Evening Post, Matt talks about his career post-potter and The Rise, also known as Wasteland which is out in the UK beginning tomorrow. The interview began with Matthew talking about his first post-Potter role in the West End play Verdict:

“I guess I wanted to prove that I could do something after Potter,” he explains. “When you come out of a film like that you worry if you are going to work again. You have to shake that off and get the monkey off your back. I had never done theatre before and coming out of a big film, I wanted to go back to basics and see how it goes. I was largely terrible. We didn’t have a lot of rehearsal time and I’d done nothing like it before, so we had some bad reviews. But it was good for me. I picked up the basics and by the end I figured out what theatre was about. Jumping in the deep end like that was a stupid thing to do but I really enjoyed it. I’m very appreciative that they gave me that opportunity. Even though it was difficult at first I knew I had to knuckle down and I came out of that with a renewed confidence.”

On why he chose to accept the role of Dodd: “When I was approached with the script I thought it was brilliant. It is hard to explain the intelligence of it without giving away the ending. I really loved it. It was clever and different and very much something I wanted to be a part of.”

Of his character Dodd in The Rise: “The character of Dodd was really fun for me to play. He is the biggest of all of his mates and very loyal. He’s on the front line but isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. It was so different to Neville. Neville isn’t something I wanted to dwell on and I’m moving away from it now. But at the same time I’m not going to begrudge it because that is what made me and it’s where I came from. There are opportunities that I’ve got now that I wouldn’t have got without it. I wouldn’t ever shy away from talking about it.”

On being able to work in his hometown of Leeds: “Working in Leeds is brilliant for me. I am not a keen traveller in any way. I’ve been around the world with my job and been to many wonderful places but I always want to come home. So for me, to be able to do a job that I love in the city that I love really is a dream come true.”

Matt Lewis and his new film, Wasteland also known as The Rise, are featured in the October 2013 issue of Total Film Magazine. You can view a scan of the page here and read a transcript of Matt’s section below. Make sure to pick up an issue for yourself. Thanks to SnitchSeeker for sending over the scan!

On the distant dance floor a sweaty crowd parties like a certain Prince song, while a group of lads on a nearby table plan the night’s conquests. Only something’s not right. There’s no music.

“It’s a bit surreal, isn’t it?” laughs Harry Potter star Matthew Lewis, reassuring us that we haven’t gone deaf. “I don’t know how they dance so well to silence.” We’re on the set of The Rise, first-time director Rowan Athale’s Ocean’s Eleven-on-a-council-estate caper, and the plotting pals in question are Lewis, Luke Treadaway, Iwan Rheon and Gerard Kearns. (The lack of backing track is so that the boys can hear themselves act.)

The Rise tells the story of Treadaway’s Harvey; framed by a drug-dealing club owner and imprisoned for a year, he returns home to seek himself some redemption – and make something of his pal’s going-nowhere lives in the bargain.

The Hogwarts-educated actor talks life after Harry Potter and saying goodbye to Neville Longbottom…

Does Harry Potter still affect your acting choices? I get asked a lot if I’m making a conscious decision to get away from Neville, but anything so drastically different. I just want to do things I think have a story worth telling.

Did you worry you might end up typecast after the series ended? I was doing Neville for 10 years and as much fun as Harry Potter was, you do get to a point where you want to do something different anyway. I wanted to do something contemporary. Something real.

So, what exactly is your post-Potter plan, then? Realistically, I just want to be an actor and keep jobbing away. No one’s in it for the spring, we’re all in it for the marathon. No fast tracks. I just want to be proud of what I’ve done.